1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to writing guides adapted to assist individuals who are visually or otherwise impaired to write in a legible manner, and more particularly to a scriptwriting guidance device to guide a writer's pen or other writing implement along a straight, horizontal path across a writing surface to form letters and other characters without interference from the device.
2. Status of Prior Art
A person having normal vision who is free of any neuromuscular disability is able to write in a legible manner along a straight, horizontal path across a paper sheet or other writing surface. In this age of personal computers, writing is no longer limited to paper or similar writing surfaces, for pen-based or so-called notepad computers are now available in which data is entered not by way of a keyboard but by means of an electronic stylus with which the user of the computer writes on an illuminated surface responsive to the stylus to digitize the script written thereby.
But individuals who are blind or visually impared, or who suffer from a neuromuscular disability that makes it difficult to write, cannot write legibly along a straight, horizontal path on a writing surface. Thus a blind person, while he can manipulate a writing implement cannot see the characters he is forming on the writing surface, nor can he see whether these characters are being written along a straight, horizontal path across the surface. While some writing paper is ruled with parallel straight lines to define writing paths across the paper sheet, a person with normal vision can usually write legibly on unruled paper. But those who are visually or otherwise impaired cannot do so.
In order to make it possible for hadicapped individuals who are incapable of writing legibly along straight, horizontal paths on a writing surface to be able to do so, the prior art discloses various forms of writing guides for this purpose.
Thus the Marks U.S. Pat. No. 2,530,437 shows a clip board to accommodate a paper writing sheet, a pair of tracks being mounted on opposite side margins of the board. Bridging these tracks is a rectangular frame whose ends are joined to slides that ride on the tracks. Each track is provided with a row of equi-spaced holes, and each slide is provided with a spring-biased plunger that is insertable in a selected track hole so that the frame is movable in a stepwise manner down the board.
The window of the Marks frame which overlies the paper sheet, serves as a writing slot to restrict movement of the writing implement to a corresponding path across the paper. The writer who uses the Marks guide writes within the confines of the window of the frame, and upon the completion of each line of writing, the frame is advanced one step down to a position parallel to the written line above, and the writer then proceeds to write the next line.
As pointed out in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,899,839 to Essmann and 4,223,447, to Greenlees when a blind person writes within a narrow guide slot having rigid sides or within a slot defined by a pair of spaced rigid bars, the fixed dimensions of the slot interfere with those writing movements necessary to complete the letters, numbers and other characters of the written script. The rigid upper and lower edges of the slot cause the top and bottom of these characters to be chopped off. Thus when writing the letter "d" within a rigid writing slot, the upper edge of the slot will chop off the vertical section of this letter, and the letter will then appear as an "o." And in writing the letter "h," the upper edge of the slot will decapitate the top vertical section of this letter which will then appear as an "n." In writing letters such as "g," "q" and "y" within a rigid narrow slot, the rigid bottom edge of this slot will chop off the bottom tails of these letters. Writing, whether carried out in block letters or in a cursive style such as writing using upper case and lower case letters, numbers, symbols and other characters, in order to be fully legible, the characters cannot be truncated but must be completely formed.
Essmann's solution to this problem is to provide a writing guide having a slot defined by parallel bars that are pivotally mounted at their ends and spring biased, the guide bars yielding when engaged by the writing implement to permit completion of the written characters. Greenlees' solution is to provide a writing slot defined by a pair of flexible strings which when engaged by the writing implement are deflected to permit completion of the characters.
In the Spikes U.S. Pat. No. 2,562,479, a writing guide for the blind includes upper and lower cross bars that are spring biased to yield to pressure applied thereto by a writing implement to permit the completion of characters.
This arrangement, according to Spikes, permits a blind person to write legibly and to ensure that all written lines will be parallel to each other and evenly spaced. A writing guide arrangement for the blind or visually impaired similar to that in Spikes is disclosed in the Frost U.S. Pat. No. 980,623.
The above-described prior art writing guide structures are relatively complex and costly to manufacture, for the guide element which defines a writing slot for the writing implement is supported by a pair of tracks or similar means mounted on opposing side margins of a backboard, with slides being provided on both tracks to permit indexing of the guide element along the tracks. The paper sheet which must be placed on the backboard has to slip in and fit between the tracks. This limits the size of the paper that can be used and also makes it somewhat difficult for a visually impaired individual to place a paper sheet on the backboard or to remove it therefrom.